I’ve never professed myself to be a marriage expert (my wife will testify that on many occasions I am anything but). I don’t have all the answers, but I do have one key to a healthy marriage that I would like to pass along today.
You have to have some fun.
Life can be really difficult and throw you lots of curveballs. What a blessing it is to have someone you know is alway in your corner and who makes you laugh and enjoy everything more (93% of the laughter is unintentional on her part, but that’s part of her charm).
We’re here in California this week and we could be upset that we have to split our together time with time in training, but we make the most of our time together and we have a blast. After 11 years of marriage, there’s still nobody else I would rather hang out with and spend my time with.
We experience new things together…
We experience familiar things together…
We try to be romantic…
And we always have lots of smiles…
We love our family and our lives. We are blessed with so much and we do our best not to take it for granted. We also know that no one’s going to keep our marriage healthy but us, and we’ve got to carve out some fun and romance wherever we can. That may be a walk around the neighborhood holding hands or turning a training trip into a romantic getaway (I have noted though that it’s a heck of a lot easier to consider romance when five children aren’t hanging on you… just sayin’).
People get bored. Spouses drift apart. Rifts happen when life is a constant drudgery, but having fun isn’t magic. You have to try! I want to work on always keeping my wife as my best and closest friend.
I know whatever comes, we can lean on God, lean on each other, and guaranteed we’ll be having fun and laughing along the way.
Whether you’re married or not, do you think having fun in a marriage is given enough consideration? If you’re married, how do you keep it fun?
28 Comments
The last pic says it all. We laugh alot. (mostly at me)
michael recently posted..Hold Fast
I try to make her laugh a lot (especially when there’s the chance I may be in trouble).
Thanks Michael!
(I have noted though that it’s a heck of a lot easier to consider romance when five children aren’t hanging on you… just sayin’).
Jason…try seven! Great refreshment your serving up this AM bro’
Jay Cookingham recently posted..Spirit Warrior
Jay, I actually thought of you when I wrote that! “Poor Jay,” I thought. ha!
Like Michael said, the last picture I think sums it all up. Marriage is work, sure, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun at it.
Brett Barner recently posted..Three Blog Page Non-Essentials But Are Still Pretty Cool
You got to, right? It’s not just a contract or arrangement. You’ve got to be in it for the long haul. If there’s no fun, that makes for a loooong time (or trying to find someone new). Thank you, Brett.
I’ve always thought of you as a marriage expert. Is that why I’m still not married yet?
Well, it’s all a matter of degrees. I have real world experience so to you, I would be an expert.
Your wife is beautiful.
Fun: Bob likes to wear historical hats. I find them more hysterical than historical, and like to kid him for it. Win/win.
Helen recently posted..Happy Anniversary- Bob and Me!
Perfect! I’m thinking Andrea and I would love to hang out with you and Bob. Thank you, Helen.
Yes, marriage is work. Marriage is commitment that often makes us feel like we should be committed. But it is pure joy to live in God’s will, and there is such blessing in keeping covenant!
Keep on having fun, laughter goes a long, long way…
HisFireFly recently posted..Tuesdays Unwrapped -- On the water
Karin- amen! That sums it up there. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Okay. Since I’m not married, feel free to ban my comment.
You experience crabs together?
I mean the food. Really. I tried one once, and I just didn’t like it. Do the crabs at Red LObster taste good to you?
DS recently posted..dreaming with a troubled heart
No, don’t go to Red Lobster to get good seafood. I never liked seafood that much until I moved to Alaska. The fresher the better. Crab is definitely one you have to have fresh! There’s my advice. We haven’t had any crab on this trip though.
Fun is crucial and romance is difficult with just one child in tow…I can only imagine multiples…
My wife and I still date on a regular basis and we take a trip each year without the munchkin to celebrate our anniversary.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money, you just have to put forth the effort.
Dusty Rayburn recently posted..Waiting
So many believe it costs too much to keep dating, but as one minister put it, it’s cheaper than a divorce.
Just gotta make the time and effort.
Thanks Dusty.
Love this post, Jason! I don’t think fun is given enough consideration in most marriages. Life can get stressful and sometimes it gets difficult to keep things in perspective. And then you have all these people trying to give you advice on how to make things work in your relationship (don’t do this or that, blah blah blah). Most of the advice leaves out the importance of keeping our sense of humor
At the end of the day, however, it helps to remember why we fell in love in the first place and why we’re each other’s best friend.
What we do to keep the fun is to tease each other constantly (not in bad ways), make each other laugh even when we’re arguing, take time to be impractical, and just act plan goofy at times. We also have inside jokes that can make even the most serious situation a little lighter. It’s not easy keeping the spice in the relationship, but definitely worth the effort!
At the end of the day, I LOVE being married…
Meghan Nelson recently posted..Me -- The Unnatural Mother
That’s the key, right? To love each other, love being together and do the work of keeping it that way! Thanks Meg.
I think this is great that it is posted the night after the fire alarm went off and we spent an hour waiting outside around midnight. Now that took a lot of work on your part to keep me guessing!!
I promised you adventure, baby! Don’t say I don’t deliver on my promises.
Love you…
Well, the single lady has to chime in…
One of the hardest relationships I’ve ever been in (or gotten out of) was a relationship that I was in with a guy that I had NOTHING in common with. We had amazing chemistry (just being honest) but other than that, we agreed on nothing. We didn’t have the same sense of humor. Didn’t like the same music or movies. Didn’t have the same friends. And at the end of the day, chemistry was not enough to keep us together. When he proposed (twice) I had to say no because (among other things) I knew that at some point, the marriage would be miserable. So, from my limited (unmarried) experience, I have to agree with you.
So by chemistry, you mean you were attracted to one another? Is that what you’re trying to say? If so, yeah, there has to be more than that to sustain the ups and downs and make you want to work on it!
Thanks Sarah- single-lady opinion is duly noted.
Well, “attracted to one another” is really putting it mildly… But yeah, I guess you could put it that way.
I was just trying to keep it clean, Sarah. My goodness.
I am not married, but I can say that I don’t see enough couples that just take time to have fun. I think it’s so easy to get caught up in the stress of a job, house, kids and life that we forget about the ones we love. This is definately a very sweet story. Thanks for sharing!
Aw, thanks Melissa. I appreciate it!
Great post Jason! Having is definitely an important ingredient for a healthy marriage.
Kevin M. recently posted..Hilarious video- What if Seinfeld was a thriller
I thought you might agree! Thanks Kevin.